A number of theoretical and experimental studies on the growth and collapse of bubbles have been made in order to clarify the boiling phenomena. Most of those experiments, however, have been made with heating surfaces of smaller size than bubble diameter. Authors have been doubtful of the validity of applying such experimental results to boiling with a larger heating surface. In order to clarify the dependence of the bubble growth and collapse upon the shape and size of heating surface, they carried out experiments by means of the heating surfaces of horizontal circular brass plates 100 mm and 140 mm in diameter respectively and of horizontal small platinum wire 0.5 mm in diameter and found that : (1) Bubble growth and collapse are independent of heat flux. (2) Bubble collapse is strongly influenced by the degree of subcooling. (3) Bubble growth and collapse which essentially dominate the boiling heat transfer are considerably affected by the size of heating surface.
Localized Rigidity Method (LRM) is employed to describe a functionally graded material (FGM), where suspended spherical grains are dispersed in the matrix. Presently developed procedure was used to predict the dynamically propagating crack in the FGM via a fuzzy shceme successfully deducing crack running speeds at every instant of propagation, so that the crack-tip severity described by T^* integral follows a prescribed integral value, T^*c. Successful results were obtained predicting crack arrest occurring especially for the crack running in the metal-rich region in the FGM.
Until recently, we have only inferred the movement of each skeletal muscle from electromyogram measurements (EMG), anatomical information, and observations of the human body surface. However, under the present circumstances it is problematic to comprehend the connection and interaction between the human skeleton and skeletal muscles or between human skeletal muscles themselves. Thus we aimed to develop a method to quantitatively visualize these interactions in space and time sequential domains by utilizing computer graphic techniques. First, each human skeleton and muscle model was reconstructed from MRI data sets. Second, coordinates derived from a mesh framework of a muscle were converted into algorithm. This algorithm reduced all coordinates of the muscle framework while maintaining the original muscle shape. Afterwards, we were able to construct a realistic skeletal muscle model. This muscle model can contract or extend while avoiding the bone or adjacent skeletal muscle by taking physical interference into account. We also made a series of skeletal muscle models for each bone. As a result, we could observe the activity and contribution of each muscle in bone movement. In the future, by applying this system we will be able to monitor the movements of people with physical disorders.
The feedforward control is a very important factor for the autonomous vehicle driving system. It is also important for this system to set the driving trajectory in the feedforward control system, which enables vehicles (e.g., a truck and bus) to follow the designated course automatically from the departure point to the destination point. This driving trajectory is the 3D geometric curve, which is generated by calculating the 3D road map data(e.g., white line marking, stop line), and includes various attributes like 3D positioning data (e.g., latitude, longitude and altitude), direction, curvature, vertical slope, cumulative distance and the position of informatory sign (e.g., stop line, cross walk). The driving trajectory with these attributes is useful for the automatic steering control system, in which the vehicle can move with safe travel speed, adequate steering angle and so on. In this paper, the authors propose the driving trajectory generation approach and demonstrate the effectiveness of it by creating the prototype software and generating each driving trajectory for experimental courses with it.
In order to establish a system to facilitate the systematic collection, preservation, and provision of laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus) and their derivates, the National BioResource Project-Rat (NBRP-Rat) was launched in July 2002. By the end of 2008, more than 500 rat strains had been collected and preserved as live animals, embryos, or sperm. These rat resources are supplied to biomedical scientists in Japan as well as in other countries. This review article introduces NBRP-Rat and highlights the phenome project, recombinant inbred strains, BAC clone libraries, and the ENU-mutant archive, named the Kyoto University Rat Mutant Archive (KURMA). The future direction of rat resources are also discussed.
